Mangrove night tree snake
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Mangrove night tree snake ( Boiga dendrophila ) |
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| Boiga dendrophila | ||||||||||||
| ( Boie , 1827) |
The mangrove tree snake or Ularburong ( Boiga dendrophila ) is a species of snake from the family of snakes (Colubridae). She is one of the false snakes , but is no longer viewed as a uniform family group today. Like all night tree snakes ( Boiga ) it has opistoglyphic fangs . Their venom causes paralysis that is irreversible, specifically in birds . This snake species occurs with nine subspecies in tropical Southeast Asia .
features
Mangrove night tree snakes are slender snakes that reach an average length of 1.6 to 2.0 m, maximum about 2.5 m. The body is slightly flattened on the sides and conspicuously blue-black with sulfur-yellow to white horizontal stripes, which are interrupted on the back and become wider towards the belly. The ventral side is mottled blue to gray-black, yellowish or yellow. The oval head, barely separated from the neck, is black and may have yellow spots. The throat is yellow, as are the eight upper lip and eleven lower lip shields , which are clearly delimited in black. The pupil of the large eye is slit vertically. There are a pre- and two postocular shields as well as a scutum loreale . The trunk has 21 to 23 rows of scales in the middle . The animals have 209 to 239 ventral shields , 78 to 110 paired sub-caudal shields and an undivided anal shield . The females are slightly larger than the males. The young animals are usually the same color as the adult animals. Exceptions are some subspecies: In B. d. dendrophila and B. d. gemmicincta , the young are black-yellow in color and only turn black when they are old. At B. d. cyanea , the young are mostly red in color, with the head being green. These animals also only change color when they get older.
Way of life
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The mangrove night tree snake lives in tropical rain and mangrove forests . The animals are mainly active at night and at dawn and hide during the day in dense foliage or in hollow tree trunks. They prefer to be near water and swim well, but rarely let themselves down to the bottom. Birds and their clutches, mammals, lizards, snakes and amphibians, which are killed by poisonous bites or by strangling, serve as prey. When threatened, the head is bent backwards in the attacking position, the tail trembled and often struck several times. The bite is usually harmless to humans.
Mating usually takes place on the ground from May to June and can take several hours. After 100 to 120 days, 4 to 15 eggs are laid.
Toxinology
The monomeric polypeptide denmotoxin was detected in the secretion of the Duvernoy's glands of Boiga dendrophila . This has a "three-finger structure" and is the first toxin with such a structure that was detected in the poison of a species of Colubridae . It has 77 amino acid residues with four disulfide bridges and a fifth disulfide bridge in the first loop. Seven residues are at the amino terminus , which is blocked by a pyroglutamic acid residue. As a postsynaptic antagonist , denmotoxin blocks the nicotinic receptors of acetylcholine at the motor endplate , which paralyzes the skeletal muscles. The activity of denmotoxin on the receptors of birds (the main food of the snake) is about a hundred times stronger than on the receptors of mice (mammals; here reversible) and is also irreversible. Accordingly, Denmotoxin is specifically effective against birds.
Systematics
The species was described by Boie in 1827 as Dipsas dendrophila with Java as Terra typica . Nine subspecies of the mangrove night tree snake are currently recognized:
- B. d. annectens ( Boulenger , 1896) - on Borneo
- B. d. dendrophila (Boie, 1827) - on Java
- B. d. divergens Taylor , 1922 - on Luzon and the Polillo Archipelago
- B. d. gemmicincta ( Duméril , Bibron & Duméril , 1854) - on Sulawesi
- B. d. latifasciata (Boulenger, 1896) - on Mindanao
- B. d. levitoni Gaulke, Demegillo & Vogel 2005 - on Panay and probably the western Visayas
- B. d. melanota (Boulenger 1896) - on the Malay Peninsula , Singapore, and Sumatra
- B. d. multicincta (Boulenger, 1896) - on Balabac and Palawan
- B. d. occidentalis Brongersma 1934 - on Sumatra , the Batu Islands , Nias and Pulau Babi
literature
- Ludwig Trutnau : Non-toxic snakes, part 2 . 4th edition. Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3223-0 .
- Günther Nietzke: The terrarium animals 3 . 4th edition. Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-7459-6 .
- Friedrich Boie: Comments on Merrem's attempt at a system of amphibians . In: Isis von Oken . tape 20 , 1827, pp. 508-566 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pawlak J., Mackessy SP, Fry BG, Bhatia M., Mourier G., Fruchart-Gaillard C., Servent D., Ménez R., Stura E, Ménez A, Kini RM: Denmotoxin, a three-finger toxin from the colubrid snake Boiga dendrophila (Mangrove Catsnake) with bird-specific activity . In: Journal of Biological Chemistry . 281, No. 39, 2006, pp. 29030-41. doi : 10.1074 / jbc.M605850200 .
- ↑ Boiga dendrophila in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 7, 2011.
Web links
- Boiga dendrophila in The Reptile Database
- Boiga wallachi inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Srinivasulu, C., Das, A. & Mohapatra, P., 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2014.